The present invention is related to a display panel and a display unit that include a light modulation device exhibiting the scattering property or transparency to light.
In recent years, the demand for a display unit in use for mobile devices such as cellular phone and electronic paper has increased, and a reflection-type display unit has drawn attention. The reflection-type display unit carries out a display by reflecting incident light from the outside using a reflecting plate, eliminating the need for a backlight. Therefore, electric power consumed by a backlight is saved, which makes it possible to drive mobile devices for a longer period of time as compared with a case of using a transmission-type display unit. Further, disuse of a backlight allows weight saving and miniaturization accordingly.
For the reflection-type display unit, however, it is not easy to enhance the contrast, and thus various methods have been proposed in the past. For example, Patent Document 1 proposes to mount a retardation plate between a substrate and a polarization plate that hold a liquid crystal layer in between when a liquid crystal panel is used for a display panel.